


Unfair

by spacedragonarmada



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M, Yami Yuugi | Atem Has His Own Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28704213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedragonarmada/pseuds/spacedragonarmada
Summary: Prompt from that one makeup meme with the two girls except its Atem and Yugi. They go to the arcade to meet up with everyone afterwards. Joey wants to know who 'tops', Atem decides to be chaotic about it.
Relationships: Atem/Mutou Yuugi, Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	Unfair

**Author's Note:**

> No beta we die like men (lol)

[ ](https://twitter.com/RussianNiko/status/1346754188097667072)

No matter how many times they'd done this over the course of their lives, Yugi couldn't decide whether he was the most blessed, or the most cursed man to walk the Gods’ green earth.

Getting to wake up to the warm embrace of Atem, getting to have breakfast together, play in the arcades with their friends and against each other, getting to _live_ with Atem, _touch_ him. Surely he should be the most blessed one graced by the presence of an ex-pharaoh could be, and yet there was a down side.

It wasn’t a deal breaker, although one could argue the first morning Yugi had rudely discovered Atem was a _morning_ person of all things was the closest thing to a deal breaker they had ever had, and even then that issue promptly was resolved by kicking Atem out of the bed if he wasn’t down for another few hours of cuddling while Yugi cozily snoozed on.

No this was something else.

An honor, Yugi had thought at first, to be trusted with the task of tending to Atem’s makeup. For Atem to feel comfortable enough to allow Yugi to carefully apply the various products to his already strikingly handsome face.

It wasn’t anything like the other chuckled under his weight, made inappropriate jokes to the way Yugi straddled the pharaoh to pencil in the eyeliner, or even tried to distract him with kisses - although yugi wouldn’t complain if such a distraction did occur - no, the issue was that Atem sat there perfectly still, head resting comfortably against their marshmellon pillow and hands tucked neatly across his belly and looked up at Yugi like he was his _whole world_.

The onetime Yugi had asked him to stop ‘looking at him like that’, Atem had gone ahead and closed his eyes, before having the audacity to _fall asleep_ and look every part the embodiment of a descendant of the Gods. In the end it only made his heart rattle erratically in his chest and shake his hands to the point he’d had to give upon the venture entirely, opting instead to press their chests together and watch the rise and fall of Atem’s breathing, waiting until the other woke up.

“You’re going to be the death of me you know that.” Yugi mulled, enjoying the feeling of closeness despite his current predicament, an all too familiar blush tinting his cheeks as he forced his hand steady so not to risk poking Atem in the eye. It hadn’t happened yet, and he sorely hoped that ‘yet’ would never come to pass.

Having individual bodies could not even hope to separate them. More often than not where one went, the other went too. Intentionally or not they’d always gravitate back towards each other to the point Duke had joked they might as well have been joint at the hip.

There were times Yugi missed the feeling of their souls entwined and the passing fractures in Atem’s composure screamed that on occasion he did too, but even so, they would never give up the physical presence they shared now. There was too much benefit to the way they were now, even if their souls yearned to exist as one.

“You’re not allowed to die before me, Aibou.”

“And why not?” Yugi teased back, fighting back the growing blush by purposefully ignoring the intensity of Atem’s gaze. Had he not been carefully penciling in the thick black eyeliner, perhaps he would have made to grab him in defiance to his comment.

“Because I don’t want to live in a world without you.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Yugi protests. It wasn’t as if Atem had lived 3016 years without him already. “I don’t want to live without you either.”

Apparently Atem was having none of that.

“Nonsense Yugi, when the time comes for you to follow I want to _personally_ escort you to _Aaru_.”

“Mou hitori no boku.” The sigh was a drawn but affectionate one as the old nickname fell from his lips. Pulling back to ensure he didn’t sully his handiwork, Yugi ruffled the ex-Pharaoh’s wild blonde fringe.

“Neither of us are going _anywhere_ anytime soon, and besides,” He leaned in to kiss Atem’s forehead. “Regardless we will go _together,_ your life is bound to mine as per the arrangement with the gods after all.”

Speaking of together, if they didn’t hurry up they’d be late for meeting up with Joey and the others at the arcade. If Yugi had been eager for this meetup, Atem had been thrice as eager. It was one of the few times with their ever growing schedules they all have off together; even Tea was back in town for the week!

Sparing a glance at the clock still miraculously sitting above his bed after last night, Yugi promptly reminded the other the time for meeting was quickly drawing near.

It took some effort, mostly on Yugi’s part given Atem decided _immediately after_ being told they were pressed for time to torment him, but they made it to the arcade on time.

If anyone noticed the darkening bruise upon Atem’s neck or the slight disarray of Yugi’s fringe they blessedly kept it to themselves.

Meeting with everyone again was just as thrilling as Yugi had hoped. The gang bounced from game to game like kids in a candy store. No matter how many times they’d come here, or played the games so much some of them had even begun to memorize the _patterns_ in the first 4 levels of specific shooters, it was like experiencing it for the first time.

Where exactly Ryou’s talent for pinball came from now one was quite sure, but given how many tickets he was racking up (and admittedly stupidly quickly) no one was complaining. Except perhaps when he had the _audacity_ to claim his score was suffering a bit still from the lingering nerve damage in his arm a few years prior.

Yugi looked from the machine to the palm of his hand. The scarring was subtle, but so obviously there as he brushed the pad of his thumb over the ridges and dips where the millennium puzzle’s chain had seared his skin.

He was fortunate to have come away relatively unscathed all things considered. For the most part his nerves were still in check, there was no numbness, nor lack of function, and the scaring itself was barely visible unless you knew what to look for.

The concept of ‘forever’ came back to mind, drawing his gaze away and back to Atem.

Forever had been a hope, a foolish one perhaps. As much as he tried to deny it, ‘forever’ was something he was almost hyperaware could never come to pass. And yet, somehow it had. And every day when Atem awoken to meet the sunrise, stirring him from slumber no matter how carefully and quietly he tried to slip from the bed or turn towards the slight part in the curtains, Yugi would awake, and under his complaints or adamant ploys to feign sleep, he would thank the gods for the gift of ‘forever’ meaning _forever._

Forever with Atem was more than he could ever have hope, ever have dreamed to have.

“Yugi?” Atem called softly, a touch of concern lacing his voice but not enough to warn the others.

_Of course he noticed_ , Yugi thinks shaking his head fondly and offering the other a reassuring smile, silently gesturing back to the game and Joey’s increasingly agitated state as if he wanted to ask something.

_Meet up at air hockey?_ Atem shot back to which Yugi beamed eagerly, he had a King of Air Hockey title to tear back from his partner.

_You’re on!_

Despite their mindlink being severed, the duo could still hold a silent conversation; in fact they even _practiced_ it. The void left behind had lead to occasional spouts of panic, surprisingly more on Atem’s part, and before they knew it, one thing lead to another and the duo were discovering ways and cues to communicate through subtle gestures alone.

It wasn’t quite the same as sharing a mind space, but it was more comforting than either of them had anticipated.

With a resolve to gather more tickets in hopes of walking away with one of the grand prizes (read as, leaving Ryou to his ticket hoarding, envy inducing, and seemingly unending pinball game in which he was still only on ball two of three with two spares ready to go should the ball so much as _dare_ drop between the bumpers) the group broke off each to tackle games with the highest effort to ticket ratio before dinner, with the added bonus of giving Joey the room he so desperately seemed to want to mosey his way on up to Atem’s side.

Yugi watched on curiously from his racing chair as Mario Kart randomized to rainbow road, he’d half expected Joey to approach _him._

That curiosity would have to wait however as his race was about to begin.

Atem peered over curiously as Joey approached the more worn section of the arcade with its abundance of retro games Atem adored. Specifically this one particular machine of Tetris. Both himself and Yugi had remained undefeated in the two player branch of the game for…. Eight months now? He was pretty sure that was when they’d first played it. That was, of course before Yugi had introduced him to the concept of bullet hell games which had promptly stolen his attention.

Tetris was faster and given Joey was approaching _him_ instead of Yugi like he’d anticipated, at least multitasking extreme Tetris and talking would be the easier of the two. Not that he would have shied away from the challenge.

“I wouldn’t have picked you for a Tetris player.” Atem challenged with a quirk of his brow. To his credit Joey _did_ spare a whole three seconds to regard the game before immediately being put off by how the efficiency in which Atem was clearing lines from arguably some of the most _absurd_ arrangements that would have had any other man lose the game in the next three blocks.

“Nah, not for me,” He began, a hand rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous gesture, he was avoiding eye contact Atem noted. “But there is something I want to ask.”

“Ask away.”

Joey’s gaze lingered for a moment on Atem’s neck, curiosity was eating at his gut but his gut was also telling him if he pushed Joey would retreat.

“So does um…”

It was getting increasingly difficult to feign ignorance to the way Joey kept looking at his neck, harder still to fight the smirk that threatened to tug at his lips. Oh it was becoming increasingly clear what Joey was wanting to ask. Atem was not oblivious to the shenanigans of two teenage boys behind the school with pixilated raunchy magazines.

Being bound to another and having a near insatiable curiosity for the unfamiliar world had its ups and downs.

Yugi’s distant thoughts when he fronted back when they’d shared a body too, had certainly not escaped his notice either. Atem just chose for the sake of both of them, to politely ignore until Yugi made the first move.

“Does Yugi ever, ya know… top you?”

“Of course he does,” Atem replies perhaps a little _too_ enthusiastically. “He was on top this morning.”

Had Joey been drink he would have spit it out. Had he been eating he probably would have choked. But seeing he had neither, Joey was left to splutter, almost doubling over as his face turned red at a world record winning pace.

Yugi got the distinct feeling that Atem was being mean, and not just because Joey was gaping like a fish out of water and throwing his hands every which way like a crazed madman. He may not have been able to _hear_ what was going on but there was an overwhelming familiar feeling of _something_ from the far too smug male that had him playing more aggressively to finish the race and collect his ticket prize.

“Mou hitori no boku!” Yugi scolded like a mother hen abusing the power of using one’s full name, making his way over from the adjacent wall of games. “Stop being mean.”

Apparently his intervention only caused Joey to seize up, surprising him further as his face somehow grew even _redder_ than before.

“Wait a second.” His voice was shaky, finger pointing accusingly between the two tricoloured men.

“I thought you guys couldn’t do that talking in your head thing anymore!?”

“We can’t.” Yugi says readily. “But that didn’t stop us from finding a work around it. This time however it was more of a sixth sense than reading _a certain someone’s_ face.” Yugi made a point to glance accusingly at the man in question. A promise to scold him _properly_ later. Atem dared him to try.

The conversation wasn’t going anywhere near how Joey had planned. When he’d lost the paper scissor rock best of nine round with Tristan he’d assumed, _hoped,_ he may have been able to slip the question, get a quick, honest answer, and high tail it out of there before anyone could cause a scene. But no, instead Atem had to be _that guy_ who seemed to be taking pleasure in messing with him every which way under the sun while adamantly avoiding using the word ‘fuck’.

Perhaps it would have been easier just asking Yugi, but he wanted to spare his friend (and his ear drums) the likely strike of embarrassment.

Making a show of sliding closer to Yugi and holding his hand up in a not so subtle gesture of a whisper, Joey decided for the sake of his sanity, it was now or never.

1500¥ was not worth this.

“Look, Yuge, here’s the deal. I have bet going on with Tristan and I lost the rock paper scissors so I gotta be the one to ask ‘cause curiosity is killing us, but who tops between you and Atem, and don’t you dare try to tell me the two of you haven’t done the horizontal monster mash.”

To his ears’ relief, Yugi didn’t shriek.

He did however turn a delightful shade of red.

“W-we’ll…” Yugi stuttered, trying to simultaneously muster the courage to reply while comprehending what mess he’d walked himself into, Atem chose _then_ of all times to speak up.

“Ohh! That’s what you were meaning.” Atem says as if the shit-eating grin on his face didn’t give away that he absolutely knew all along. “Yugi tops me sexually too.”

“ _ATEM-!!!!”_ Yugi squeaked adorably, his voice breaking as he seriously considered sending the other back to the grave for saying that _so damn loud;_ only for the notion to be cut off by Duke jogging over blissfully unaware of what had been transpiring.

“Hey guys Bakura’s finally finished his game and there’s no way he’s going to be able to carry all those tickets by himself.”

More than eager to take this as his cue to leave, Joey enthusiastically volunteered himself and poured every available braincell into thinking only about how _cool_ Bakura was to have collected _so many tickets_ from a game of _pinball_. Yes thinking only of pinball, nothing else. Certainly not the 1500¥ yen he’d have to slap into Tristan’s greedy hands.

Oh boy they were going to get one of the grand prizes for sure!

Yugi meanwhile, took the moment alone to glare daggers at Atem.

“Enjoy your week without me doing your makeup.”

At that Atem actually pouted.

“Aibou, don’t be mean.”

The threat was a half-hearted one. Yugi knew he wouldn’t be able to resist being close to Atem, let alone watch him purposefully sabotage himself just to see how far Yugi’s resolve would hold before he gave up and did his own makeup (flawlessly), but he didn’t need to know that. Not yet.

Let him suffer just a _little_ more for embarrassing him in front of Joey.

Atem can make it up to him tonight.


End file.
